Kiwa hirsuta is a crustacean discovered in 2005 in the South Pacific Ocean. This decapod, which is approximately 15 cm (6 inches) long, is notable for the quantity of silky blond setae (resembling fur) covering its pereiopods (thoracic legs, including claws). Its discoverers dubbed it the "yeti lobs...

The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a fish that inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. Due to the inaccessibility of its habitat, it is rarely seen by humans. Blobfish are found at depths where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at sea level, whic...

The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unique method of finding ...

The Axolotl (or ajolote) (Ambystoma mexicanum) is the best-known of the Mexican neotenic mole salamanders belonging to the Tiger Salamander complex. Larvae of this species fail to undergo metamorphosis, so the adults remain aquatic and gilled. The species originates from the lake underlying Mexico C...

The Pink Fairy Armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus) or Pichiciego is the smallest species of armadillo (mammals of the family Dasypodidae, mostly known for having a bony armor shell). It is approximately 90-115 mm (3?-4?") long excluding the tail, and is pale rose or pink in color. It is found in cent...

The Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata) is a small North American mole found in eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States. It is the only member of the tribe Condylurini and the genus Condylura. It lives in wet lowland areas and eats small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and moll...

Hagfish are marine craniates of the class Myxini, also known as Hyperotreti. Despite their name, there is some debate about whether they are strictly fish (as there is for lampreys), since they belong to a much more primitive lineage than any other group that is commonly defined fish (Chondrichthyes...

The Emperor Tamarin (Saguinus imperator) is a tamarin allegedly named for its similarity with the German emperor Wilhelm II. The name was first intended as a joke, but has become the official scientific name. This tamarin lives in the southwest Amazon Basin, in east Peru, north Bolivia and in the ...

Sloths are medium-sized mammals that live in Central and South America belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, part of the order Pilosa. Most scientists call these two families the Folivora suborder, while some call it Phyllophaga. Sloths are omnivores. They may eat insects, s...

The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens ("shining cat," from a Latinized form of the Greek, ailouros, "cat," and the participial form of the Latin fulgere, "to shine") is a mostly herbivorous mammal, slightly larger than a domestic cat (55 cm long). The Red Panda has semi-retractile claws and, like the Giant...

Females are 27 inches (69cm) at the withers. Male Komondorok are a minimum of 28 inches at the withers, but many are over 30 inches tall, making this one of the larger common breeds of dog. The body is not overly coarse or heavy, however, and people unfamiliar with the breed are often surprised by h...

This animal with distinctive markings is a zorse - the off-spring of a female zebra and a male horse.

Little Eclyse is the latest addition to a German safari park. Eclyse is also special as zorses, or zebroids as they are also known, are usually born when a horse mare breeds with a zebra st...

These frogs vary in coloration from splendid to boring. They seem to adapt to their surroundings. The particular "Golden" color comes from yellowish accents along the sides of their bodies...surprisingly, the "golden" color really looks like 14k Gold!! Yet, this color fades and shines depending upon...

A policeman has made an unusual discovery near a river in Cuba - a turtle with two heads. The tiny turtle is thought to be around a week old and was found near one of the country's most contaminated rivers. Had it not been noticed in a pile of leaves by Officer Alexander Napoles the turtle...

Getting a pet is always a very important decision and one that should be made only when you are aware of what having this pet will entail. What type of turtle, sources of turtles, and estimates of the time and money it will take to properly care for the turtle are all important considerations. But b...

Koalas vary in size and colour depending on where Australia they live in Australia. Koalas found in the southern distributions (Southern NSW and Victoria) tend to be slightly larger and darker than those in the northern areas (Northern NSW and QLD). This is likely to be related to the different temp...

Join Steve Irwin as he treks through Australia on a mission to find the world's ten most venomous snakes and to educate us on how we can peacefully cohabit with them

Slugs have four noses. All polar bears are left handed. In a life time, the average person eats eight spiders. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds. Giant squid have the largest eyes in the world. All porcupines float. The world record for sitting in a cage filled...

To start out with, I feel that most cases of snakebite are NOT the snake's fault, but rather the fault of the person who is working with or around the snake. People can easily avoid snakebites by using some common sense. Over the years, several snakes have bitten me. I have suffered bites fro...

The Wessex Saddleback is a striking looking black pig with a white belt, which includes the front legs, around the body. (Historically, the Wessex developed almost alongside the Essex Saddleback, which differed only in having white hind feet and tail tip.) The ears are lopped forward. The Wessex ...

Long tailed or crab eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis) are found in southeast Asia from Burma to the Philippines and southward through Indochina, Malaysia, and Indonesia. They are found as far east as the Timor Islands. Long-tailed macaques are "ecologically diverse." Some of the habitats in w...

The Australian shepherd is not really an Australian breed, but it came to America by way of Australia. One popular theory of the breed's origin begins during the 1800s, when the Basque people of Europe settled in Australia, bringing with them their sheep and sheepdogs. Shortly thereafter, many o...

Best known from the movie Jaws, the great white is a large, heavy-bodied shark, about 20 feet long, with large bladelike teeth. Widely the most-feared of sharks, great white attacks are rare, and most scientists agree that its reputation is undeserved. Many scientists believe it is endangered due to...

The chameleon has zygodactylous toes (fused into opposed bundles of two and three). It has a long, slender, extensile tongue; independently movable bulged eyes; and a prehensile (grasping) tail. Its body is flattened from side to side. Chameleons usually grow to between 7 and 10 inches in leng...

Male Komodo dragons typically grow to 7 to 9 feet in length and weigh approximately 200 pounds. However, they can weigh more than 350 pounds and grow to over 10 feet long; females grow to 6 to 8 feet. Females are olive-brown with yellow patches on the throat; males are much larger and vary in col...

You can easily spot a male wood duck by his exquisite coloring. He has a white throat and chin and bright green and purple feathers. The female, like most female ducks, is more or less brown. She has a white patch on her throat, and a prominent white eye-ring. Male and female wood ducks have well-de...

Camels inhabiting the Andes in South America? Sounds quite surprising! Thinking of camels, the One-humped camel or Dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) and the Two-humped camel or Bactrian camel (Camelus ferus) from the African and Asian deserts come to one's mind. But these tall camel species have c...

The original home of the Welsh Mountain pony was in the hills and valleys of Wales. He was there before the Romans. His lot was not an easy one. Winters were severe. Vegetation was sparse. Shelter, most often, was an isolated valley or a clump of bare trees. Yet the Welsh pony managed not only to su...

The Frizzle Poland was created in Holland by Mr Airie Bolan. His inspiration came from a painting by Van Gink, a famous artist. It started with the use of long legged Japanese Bantam Frizzle. It took several years to create but, between 1989 and 1991, the Frizzle Poland became recognised giving u...

Where does the grizzly bear come from? According to stories once told by natives of the Pacific Northwest, the grizzly bear was forged by the Great Spirit, who begot the animals of the world from his walking stick. With the heavy end of his staff, the Great Spirit sired a mighty beast to rule the ot...

Despite its name, the black mamba is rarely black, but uniformly dark olive to brown or steel gray above and grayish-white below. It often has black speckling along the back half of its body. Although the black mamba's scales are deep olive or gray, the skin between the scales and the inside...

The American Staffordshire terrier and the Staffordshire bull terrier descended from the same lines. The prototype originally sprang from crossing the old type of bulldog with some old terrier types, probably the English sooth terrier. The result was aptly called the "bull and terrier," later to be ...

The green tree pit viper is uniform bright or dull green with light yellow on its lips. It grows to 18 to 30 inches in length. The green tree pit viper's range includes India, Myanmar, Malaya, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Indonesia and Formosa.